Tuesday, May 16, 2017

The World of Beer is undergoing a reinvention in Northern Virginia
this week. The three franchises - Reston, Arlington, and Fairfax - have
transitioned from World of Beer and will be known as CraftHouse.

The
locations, owned by Eban Metz, have been laboring under the World of
Beer logo since they opened, paying for the menus and supporting the
computer systems. Metz believes that he could do so much more with an
expanded beer selection and an updated menu without the World of Beer
fees. The Fairfax location has already made the transition, and it is
safe to say that the Reston and Arlington locations have likewise done
the same.

The Fairfax location, because of it abundant outdoor
area, is one of the top 10 locations for World of Beer, headquartered in
Florida. The Reston location was within the top 10 until Fairfax
opened, so two of its top flight locations will be leaving the fold, a
fact not to be missed by World of Beer.

Monday, February 6, 2017

Last week I was on the road again visiting a friend (Hey, Steve!) in
Dayton, Ohio. The purpose of the trip was simple - see the location
where the Wright Brother's worked on the discovery of flight (yes, I
know, Kitty Hawk, NC is the place where they flew) by visiting their
bicycle parts business. (Really interesting link between bicycles and
airplanes.)

Visiting the Wright Brothers also meant going to see
the public viewing space of the US Air Force base at Wright-Patterson.
(Spoiler alert: They have a B-2 Spirit!) Finally, you have to wrap up
visiting the breweries that have popped up around town and as a bonus,
cover the Packard car museum. Its a lot to cover in just a couple of
days, so lets get started!

Not so Warped, but still really good!

Out of the wide range of beers, I am going to focus on the Pirogue Black Tripel by Warped Wing Brewery.
(26 Wyandot Street, Dayton, OH, 45402 - www.warpedwing.com) The night I
walked into Warped Wing Brewery, the staff was rolling out the first
night of Pirogue Black Tripel.

The brewery is in a large building (large
by brewery standards) in an industrial/commercial area and has parking
across the street. The bar is against the right side (the brewery is
behind the wall but out of site) of the building and it has a large set
of wooden tables and chairs going out to the left. It is pretty
impressive and has wide range of male and female drinkers. There is room
for even the kids and there are plenty of them!

Pirogue Black
Tripel comes in draft with an ABV of 9.0% and IBU of 24. This beer is
tightly put together so that it drinks smooth and with a lot of flavor.
The aroma has a few hops in it, but not too many that you will walk away
from it. The taste is what really sells this as a black tripel. The
hops and the other flavors in the beer really work well together and
with a barley malt, they just sing out with black tripel flavor.
Overall, it is a really solid beer.